Martyn Simpson

Wednesday, 21 February 2018

As I intend to have my intonarumoris played with Saxophones, Drums, Electric Guitars and other sound making devices, I need to add amplification. While my larger intonarumori can just about hold its own in the noise making, the smaller intonarumoris need help, especially to bring out some of the quieter subtle tones.

Oh course I could just use a microphone on a stand to go through the PA, but by building the amplification into the intonarumori will give the user more control as to the sound.

My guide book for doing this is the excellent ' Handmade Electronic Music. The art of hardware hacking' by Nicolas Collins.

This book is wonderful manual of ideas. The second edition includes a DVD of 13 video tutorials. 'Its like me doing a workshop in your town' and 87 video clips and 20 audio tracks by over a 100 hackers, benders, musicians, artists and inventors from around the world'. Truly inspiring stuff. It's left me with a lot of ideas to further develop once I've finished my intonarumoris.

Two low cost methods to amplify are by using Piezo disks and/or electret microphone elements. Piezos are the most simple to use as a contact microphone picking up mechanical vibration, so depending where it is positioned in or on the intonarumori it will pick up a variety of sounds such as the lever and slider. Which may or may not be desirable. In contrast the electret microphone is more selective functioning as a conventional microphone.

Piezos of various sizes including one wired up about to be 'Plastic dipped'.

Cost wise Piezos can be bought on ebay for as little as 6p!!! you will need to add on the cost of cable and jack socket. Electret microphones can cost about 37p but here you will need to add a circuit with a capacitor, resistor, switch and a 9 volt battery to power but still the cost will be under a pound! So a little bit of circuitry making here whereas the piezos can be just attached or soldered to a jack or socket.

Electret microphone

Where would we be without Altoid tins

Electret wiring

Nicolas Collins' book gives some very good tips on how to strengthen the Piezos including using the amazing 'Plastic Dip'! Where has this product been all my life! I did buy a contact mic for £3.50 which fell to bit on first use, revealing a piezo inside a plastic case, soldered badly! Making your own is a far better and stronger option. By cheaply manufacturing a number of Piezos these can be positioned in different locations about the intonarumori. Which can act as a sound filter and vary the mechanical vibrations being picked up.

Altoid tin with magnetic strip to position on the intonarumori horn

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Just a word about tools and equipment. This used to be how I went about my soldering. I always found it hard work.

old school

Here's my new equipment. I feel very guilty about having used the above kit in my lessons for over 20 years. Sorry kids.

New kit.

I looked to buy the best possible equipment based on this guys recommendations.

Wednesday, 22 November 2017

The Ronzatori Intonarumori

I've started to build a Ronzatori Intonarumori. To help I can use the 'single extant photograph of the internal mechanism of any of the intonarumori -' Lucino Chessa¹.

However this photograph does need some interpretation.

Once we are told that there is the hammer mechanism from an electric buzzer against the drum skin and the main resonating string is tightened by means of the lever, it is easy to understand how the Ronzatori works, however there are other things happening in here which are less easy to interpret.

Russolo may give some clues in a letter.

The Buzzers [ronzatori] possess a timbre that is similar to the humming of

electric motors; they are sweet and harmonious, very rich in harmonic sounds and are adapted with a pedal. Another timbre exists in the same instrument – that of the gurglers [gorgogliatori]. One can switch at will between the buzzer and the gurgler, which has the exact timbre of the gurgling of water in gutters. By means of two electric buttons one can, for example, hold a note of the buzzer and provide rhythm with the gurgler (that is to say, with the same note they can be sounded either together or separately, but when they are together the two timbres have the same note). There are three of these, but two have the same range, for which reason I would advise you to only use I – that is to say, the high. You can use it without fear, because both timbres are pleasingly sweet. You can also achieve staccato effects with these (unlike the howlers). They are also very well suited for legato. They lend themselves less well to singing, possessing a richly harmonic timbre that renders the note less certain. But they are full of charm and mystery.

So there is a switch 'between the buzzer and the gurgler' or both can be used together.

Here's what I think might be happening in this photograph.

I think the photograph was taken without the far side of the box on and using a flash hence the black area. The photograph may also have been taken during the construction of the Ronzatori showing the the structural supports E and F being positioned.

Key

A. Electric Buzzer hammer mechanism to drum against the drum skin.

B. 'Gurgler' mechanism dangling against the main resonating string?

C. Electric mechanism to 'effect' the 'Gurgler'?

D. Main resonating string.

E. Upright supporting structure for the 'Gurgler' and electric mechanism.

F. Further support for E.

So the main mystery here is that of the 'Gurgler'. I imagine it to be a weighted metal rod which may be textured to rub or some how hit the main string. This may be pulled up and down by either a rotating cam or a similar hammer lever of a buzzer mechanism. Anyhow these questions may be answered by trying to recreate the Ronzatori.

Wednesday, 1 November 2017

Instrument de Musique

There would seem to be two patents Russolo took out which are accessible on the web. The instrument de Musique looks to be very straight forward to make from the text and plans.

Here's the first stage of the instrument I have built. The sound holes on the resonant box are my embellishment.

In the patent Russolo talks about the purpose of the invention.

'...
is to create a musical instrument allowing the use of
those longitudinal vibrations that are produced by the length ways
application of a surface to a musical string. Notably, each musical
string is made of a metallic thread wound into a spiral and tightened
between two specific points above an appropriate resonant box. The
aforementioned string is able to be struck, either by hand or stroked
mechanically and tangentially by means of a loop and as seen in the
diagram of the loop'.

So the next stage for me will be to build the conveyor belt. I do wonder if this instrument was ever built as the spring can't be tensioned as Russolo describes and I'm not sure if the suggested conveyor belt mechanism will create any desired sounds but I will try. At this stage I'm also unsure of what material to use for the belt. I'm quite intrigue by the Russolo's description of the instrument 'being softly and continually struck: for example, with a hand gloved in cellophane'. This may be a clue.

Working on the conveyor belt mechanism

The conveyor belt is an interesting mechanism. Again I wonder if it was used in any of the big floor standing intonarumori where the lever is pushed down?